In Front Of Bahar Smith And The Judge, A Tale From Garut: Bahar's Lecture Contains Provocation And Lies

Kiai from Garut Faisal Sobari became a witness in the trial of the Bahar Smith hoax case at the Bandung District Court, Tuesday 17 May. (ANTARA/Good AR)

BANDUNG - The Bandung District Court (PN) presented a witness, namely Kiai from Garut Regency, Faisal Sobari, who claimed to be affected by Bahar bin Smith's video lecture which allegedly contained hoaxes which are currently being tried.

The chairman of the panel of judges, Dodong Rusdani, asked a number of questions regarding the beginning when the kiai found a video recording containing Bahar's lecture. Sobari is known to be one of the people who reported Sobari's video to the Garut Regency Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI).

"What is the attitude of the witness after seeing Habib Bahar's video?" said Rusdani at the Bandung District Court, Bandung, West Java, Tuesday 17 May.

Meanwhile, he claimed to know the video of Bahar's lecture from chatting with his congregation or the community around his Islamic boarding school in Sucinaraja District, Garut Regency. He admitted that he first saw the video in December 2021.

"After I saw about YouTube, it was as if there was a provocation," said Sobari.

According to him, the provoking words that Bahar said at the lecture were alleged hoaxes related to the arrest of Rizieq Shihab. He admitted that Bahar's words made the situation in his environment hot.

"To my knowledge, seeing a Habib Rizieq arrested is not because he held a birthday, so he was arrested as if he would provoke, would incite," he said.

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The judge then asked about the situation of the community in his environment from Bahar's video. The reason is, he said there were dozens of his congregation discussing Bahar's video.

"What do they ask the witnesses for their opinion?" asked the judge.

"They seemed restless, so I asked the congregation to show the spectacle to the Garut MUI," he said.

He also admitted that he only saw a piece of video footage containing Bahar's lecture, only on the remarks about Rizieq's arrest. The video lecture in the case was about one hour long.

Meanwhile, according to the Antara report, Bahar as the defendant asked about the contents of the BAP from Sobari. He said he in his statement stated that he had lied or hoaxed.

"Then what do you think, I'm lying, I'm spreading fake news?" said Bahar.

"Yes," he said.

On the agenda for the further trial of the Bahar hoax case, three witnesses were presented. Apart from him, the other witnesses who were presented, namely Agus and Dedi, were witnesses who were at the location of Bahar's lecture which was held in Margaasih, Bandung Regency, West Java, December 11, 2021.